Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2000 13:51:06 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Great Cormorant in DC today Hi all -- After reading Dave M's post this am, and not having much to do this morning (for a change!), Barry and I set off to Alexandria to try and see the bird, which would be a new DC species for us. We arrived at the power plant about 9:45 am, parked quite close to where the bike trail cuts in front (along the waterfront), and walked to the spot just above the water outfall. At that point we were directly across from the Naval lab and Blue Plains. There were two groups of cormorants sitting in front of the DC seawall, on half-submerged pipes. With our scope, we soon picked out the Great Cormorant in the left-hand (northernmost) group. It was not actually on the pipe, but standing behind it on some completely submerged object so that its legs and feet were not visible, and it was actually closer to the seawall than were the birds on the pipe. Nevertheless it stood out, being much bulkier, heavier and paler than the D-C Cormorants. It showed the whitish throat, brown upper breast, and pale lower breast of a juvenile bird -- quite similar to the illustration in Sibley but with the color borders not as sharp (although this could also refect distance and thefact we had the Kowa cranked up to 60x). When it turned its head, the heavy skull, deep and powerful bill were very obvious and in contrast to the head/ bill size and shape of the D-C Cormorants next to it. We looked all along the river from Four-Mile Run to Belle Haven and were not able to locate the Black Scoter Bill Dobbins saw yesterday, but there were lots of birds out of scope range in the misty (and slightly rainy) distance. Quite a few Forster's Terns and Laughing Gulls linger, and a nice adult Bald Eagle and a all-dark juvenile were sitting side by side at Belle Haven, out on the mud. Anyway, a new DC bird! Gail Mackiernan ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================